MAINTENANCE OF SERVICE BOOK AND LEAVE ACCOUNT

– CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYES

Shankar Bose

Inspector of Income-tax

MSTU, Puri

SERVICE RECORDS MAINTENANCE – CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYES

SERVICE RECORDS

1 Service book is a record of every event occurring in the official life of a government servant. It has to be maintained for every government servant holding a permanent or a temporary post except for those who are not likely to be in service for more than one year or those holding non pensionable service (SRs 196 and 197).

2 Service book in form MSO(T)-27 (Revised) must be opened for all government servants from the date of entry into service and is to be maintained till he ceases to be in service. Service book also contains certain entries about events prior to entry into the service. Entries at this stage are to be recorded very carefully after consulting the original certificates. Once the service book is opened and the entries at the initial stage recorded, other entries also have to be recorded as and when the events take place. Entries regarding confirmation, suspension, reduction in rank, withholding of increments, recovery loss, leave without pay, service break, of President Police Medal/Indian Police Medal etc.,should be made in red ink. Service book must be kept in safe custody.

3 All the entries made in the service book should be duly attested. There should not be erasing or overwriting in the service book. Corrections, if any, should be neatly done and properly attested. The Head of Offices are permitted to delegate powers to subordinate Gazetted officers under them, to attest entries in the service books except their own service book for which the Head of Offices are responsible (SR-199).

4 In CBI, different posts are filled by deputation as well as direct recruitment/promotion etc. In so far as the deputationists are concerned, service books in prescribed format of the parent department are transferred

to CBI and entries with regard to the events during the tenure of their deputation are to be recorded by the concerned office at the appropriate place/part/column.

5 To eliminate delay in payment of pension, it shall the responsibility of the officer maintaining the service book to make annual verification and also complete and certify the service book in respect of previous service in the twenty fifth year of service or 5 years before retirement, whichever is less. The orders of the competent authority, where required on the nature of service (e.g. period of leave, break in service etc.) should be obtained and recorded in the service book. Unless otherwise shown in the service book, it will be presumed that orders of the competent authority have been obtained and period of extraordinary leave, period of preceding breaks in service will be counted for pension. If any lapse or omission in observing this procedure results in overpayment, suitable disciplinary action will be taken against the authorities concerned.(Rule 32 of CCS (Pension) Rules).

6 Maintenance of Service Book

6.1 Service Book contains two volumes:-

Vol.I has four parts and Appendix containing leave account. Part-I: Contains bio data and photograph. Part-II: Deals with certificates and attestation. Part-III: Records previous qualifying service and foreign service. Part-IV: Deals with the history and verification of service.

Vol.II contains all the service documents which are to be certified and attested in Part-II of Vol.I.

6.2 Following entries / certificates are to be recorded in the service book at the time of first appointment and attested by the Head of Office or any other officer duly authorised.

(i) Employee has been medically examined and found fit.

(ii) His/her character and antecedents have been verified.

(iii) He/she has furnished declaration of his/her not having contracted bigamous marriage.

(iv) He/she has taken the oath of allegiance/affirmation to the Constitution. (v) He/she has furnished the declaration of home town which has been accepted.

(vi) The correctness of the entries against the following items of Part-I. Bio-data has been verified from original certificates furnished as valid documentary evidence for the respective purpose.

- Whether a member of SC/ST.

- Date of birth by Christian era and wherever possible also in Saka era (both in words and figures).

- Educational qualifications.

(vii) Professional and technical qualification not covered by above1[1]

- He/she has filed nominations for GPF and related entries have been furnished to the Account Office on various dates.

- He/she has furnished details of the family members.

- He/she has filed nominations for Death/Retirement Gratuity.

6.3 Events requiring entries in the Service Book.

(i) Entries at the time of initial appointment. (ii) Occurrence of events involving a change in the post, station, office, scale of pay, nature of appointment, promotion, reversion, deputation, transfer on foreign service, increment, leave suspension and other forms of interruption in service. (iii) Events like stoppage of increment. (iv) Grant of personal pay for adopting family planning norms. (v) Grant of special leave/Paternity leave. (vi) Membership of CBI Benevolent Fund. (vii) Facts of availing LTC either by Government servant or member of his family. (viii) Grant of encashment of leave during service. (ix) Allotment of GPF account number. (x) Deputation/repatriation/absorption. (xi) Confirmation at the initial grade.

6.4 Documents to be placed in Volume – II of the Service Book

(i) Relaxation of age, educational qualification (authenticated/ attested copy). (ii) Report regarding verification of character and antecedents (original). (iii) Medical certificate of fitness (original). (iv) Declaration of marital status (original). (v) Acceptance of Home Town declaration (signed/attested copy). (vi) Oath/affirmation of allegiance. (vii) Nomination for PF, DCRG, CGEGIS, Benevolent Fund. (viii) Details of Family (Signed/attested copy). (ix) Order regarding change of date of birth (authenticated/ attested). (x) Change of name (original). (xi) Change in home town / permanent home address (once in service life). (xii) Attested copies of certificates of age and education qualification. (xiii) Condonation of break in service. (xiv) Collateral evidence in respect of first service.

6.5 Leave Account

A leave account shall be maintained in the prescribed form for each government servant and must be kept with the service book with up to date account (Rule 15 of CCS(Leave) Rules, 1972).

6.6 Annual Verification of Service

At a fixed time, immediately after financial year is over, the service book shall be taken up for verification by the Head of Office, Annual Verification entry has to be recorded very carefully after consulting the Pay Bill Register. When the government servant is transferred from one office to another, the Head of the Office under whom he was originally posted/worked should record the verification of service in espect of the whole period or a month/date upto which pay and allowance of a government servant were drawn inter alia upto the period for which the government servant was paid in his office.

7 CGEGI Scheme – Form No. 13 to be pasted in the Service Book

7.1 Every year in the month of January the Head of Office will record a certificate in column 7 in the following form:

“Subscription @ Rs. _______ appropriate to group _____ of the scheme

recovered from Pay & Allowances for the period from January ____ to Dec. _____.”

7.2 All other events in the nature of promotion, transfers on deputation / foreign service, absorption in PSU/Autonomous bodies, retirement etc. occurring during the service career of the member of the scheme shall also be recorded in the appropriate column No. 6 of the form duly attested [GI (8) - SR 199].

8 Inspection of Service Book

Every Head of Office has to initiate action to show the service book to the government servant concerned every year and to obtain his signature there in token of their having inspected / seen the Service Book (SR 202).

9 Supply of copies of Service Book

Government servant who asks for a certified copy of the service book on quitting service on retirement, discharge or resignation may be supplied with the same on payment of Rs. 5/- as copying fee.

10 Alteration in Date of Birth

An alteration of date of birth of a government servant can be made, with the sanction of the Ministry or Department concerned of the Central Government under which the government servant is serving, if :

(i) The request for alteration of the date of birth is made within a period of 5 years of his entry into government service.

(ii) It is clearly established that a bonafide clerical mistake has occurred and should be rectified.

(iii) The date of birth so altered would not make him ineligible to appear in any School or University or UPSC examination in which he had appeared at such examination or on the date on which he entered the government service.

10.1 Belated Claims for Alteration in date of birth to be rejected:

The Government policy regarding rejection of belated claim for alteration in date of birth has been reinforced by the observations made by the Supreme Court in the judgement in Civil Appeal No. 502 of 1993 (Union of India vs. Harnam Singh). This position has to be kept in view while considering any request from a government servant for alteration in his date of birth. In other words, it will not be appropriate to consider any request for alteration in date of birth if the conditions stipulated in Note below FR 56 are not strictly fulfilled.

11 Nominations

Nominations under different rules are required to be obtained on prescribed forms. It has to be ensured that the nominations are not only filled in properly and signed by government servant concerned but are authenticated/accepted by the officer so authorised for the purpose. In order to ensure that nominations of the concerned employee have been obtained, a list may be maintained in the following format and can be kept in the Service Book for periodical checking.

Contd……

Some important provisions of rules

1    The rules governing the maintenance of service books in respect of Government servants are contained in the FRs&SRs and the GFRs. Some important provisions of rules which should be kept in view while maintaining service books are mentioned in the ensuing paragraphs.

[SR 197].

2    A Service Book should be maintained by the Head of Office for every Government Servant (Gazetted and Non-Gazetted) holding a substantive post on a permanent establishment or officiating in a post or holding a temporary post likely to last for more than one year.

Custody of Service Books

[SR 198].

3    A service book shall be maintained for a Government servant from the date of his first appointment to Government service. It must be kept in the custody of the Head of the Office in which he is serving and transferred with him from office to office.

Attestation of Entries in Service Books

[Government of India decision (1) below SR 199 in the Swamy's Compilation of FRs & S Rs, Part 1 (7th Edition)].

4    The Head of Office can delegate, to a subordinate gazetted officer under him, powers to attest entries in the service books of all gazetted officers (except his own) for the maintenance of which he is responsible. The Head of Office should however scrutinize at least ten per cent of these documents every year and initial the same in token of having done so.

Entries of Foreign Service in Service Books

[SR 203].

5    If a Government servant is transferred to foreign service, the Head of his Office or Department must send his service book to the Pay & Accounts Officer who will return it after noting in it, under his signature, the order sanctioning the transfer, the effect of the transfer in regard to leave admissible during foreign service etc. On the Government servant's re-transfer to Government service his service book must again be sent to the Pay & Accounts Officer who will then note in it the fact of recovery of leave salary and pension contributions. No entry relating to the period spent on foreign service should be attested by any authority other than the PAO. This fact is ,however to be recorded by DDO in case of the merged DDO Scheme.

Leave Account

[Rule 15 of CCS (Leave) Rules].

6    A leave account shall be maintained for each Government servant (Gazetted or Non-Gazetted) by the Head of Office. Entries regarding leave in the leave account and the service book should be made distinctly and attested.

Nature of Entries in Service Books

[SR 199].

7    Every step in a Government servant's offical life should be recorded in his service book and each entry must be attested by the Head of Office or if he himself is the Head of Office, by his immediate superior. The Head of Office must see that all entries are duly made and attested and that the service book contain no erasure or over-writing, all corrections being neatly made and properly attested.

[Government of India Orders(1) below SR 199 of the "Swamy's Compilation of FRs & SRs (Part 1) (7th Edition)''].

8    The entries regarding increments, and fixation of pay should be based on the Increment Certificates, and Pay fixation statements. The declaration

of the Government servant electing the new scale of Pay and the statement showing the fixation of his initial pay in the relevant scale in support of the entry in the service book should be pasted in the service book.

[Rule 4 of the LTC Rules].

9    The declaration of Home-Town for purpose of Leave Travel Concession duly accepted by the competent authority should be pasted in the service book.

(SR 200].

10    Every period of suspension from employment and every other interruption in service must be noted promptly with full details of its duration and be properly attested.

Periodical Inspection of Service Books by the Govt. Servant Concerned

[SR 202].

11    The Head of Office should show the service book to each Government servant under his administrative control every year, and obtain his signature therein in token of his having inspected the service book. A certificate to the effect that he has done so in repect of the preceding financial year should be submitted by him to his next superior by the end of every September.

Entries regarding Date of Birth

12    The provisions of Rules 79 and 80 of GFRs should be observed with regard to the entry of the date of birth in the service book.

[Note 5 below FR 56].

13    No alteration in the date of birth of a Government servant should be made except with the sanction of the Ministry/Department concerned of the Central Government, under which the Government servant is serving, provided :

(a)    A request in this regard is made within five years of his entry into Government service

(b)    it is clearly established that a genuine bonafide mistake has occured; and

(c)    the date of birth so altered would not make him ineligible to appear in any School or University or UPSC examination in which he had appeared, or for entry into Government service on the date on which he first appeared at such examination or on the date on which he entered Government service.

Entries regarding verfication of service

(GFR 81).

14    (i) In the beginning of each year all the service books should be taken up for verification of service by the Head of Office in terms of Rule 81 of GFRs and a certificate in the following manner recorded therein over his signature :- "Service verified upto (date) from ........................the record from which the verification is made''.

[Government of India Decision No.(1) below GFR 81].

(ii)    If any portion of service cannot be verified from office records, the Head of Office should state distinctly that for the excepted periods (naming them) a statement in writing by the Government servant as well as a record of the evidence of his contemporaries ,is attached to the service book.

[Government of India decision(3) below GFR81].

15    In case of transfer of Government servant, the Head of Office under whom he was originally employed should record the verification of service in respect of the whole period during which the Government servant was employed under him before forwarding the service book to the office where his services are transferred.

Providing certified copy of Service Book

[Government of India decision No.(5) below GFR 81].

16    A certified copy of service book may be supplied on payment of a copying fee Rs. 5/- to a Government servant who asks for it on quitting Government service, by retirement, discharge or resignation.

Note regarding receipts of nominations for pension/ DCRG & other important to entries

[Government of India Decision No. 1 below Rule 53 of CCS (Pension) Rules,1972].

17    A clear note should be made in the service book regarding the receipt of nomination for DCR Gratuity and Family Pension and related notices from the Government servant and where they have been lodged for safe custody.

[Government of India Decision(7) below GFR 81].

18    The orders of the competent authority regarding the counting or otherwise of periods of extraordinary leave,or periods preceding breaks in service or qualifying service for pension should be obtained invariably at the very time the occasion arises and not later. Such orders should be noted in the service book.

[Government of India Order No. (5) below SR 199 in Swamy's Compilation of FRs,Part 1 (7th Edition)].

19    General Provident Fund Account No. allotted to a Government servant (including any subsequent changes in the Account No.) should be entered on the right hand top of page 1 of his service book by means of a rubber stamp.

[Para 4.2 of M/F OM No.F.15(3)/78 WIP dated 30-10-80,read with OM No..F.15(3)/78 WIP,dated 20-2-82].

20    The Head of Office should ensure that necessary note of the membership of CGEGI Scheme has been made in respect of Government Servants who were in service on 1st November,1980 and who did not exercise the option to opt out of the scheme and those who joined the Government Service later.

[Para 9 of the M/F O.M. No. F. 15(3)/78 WIP, dated 31-12-80].

21    The Head of Office should obtain from every Government servant who is a member of C.G.E.G.I. Scheme a nomination in Form 7/Form 8 as the case may be, countersign it and paste it in the Service Book. Whenever the nomination is revised by the Government servant, the fresh nomination should be similarly counter-signed and pasted.

22    The photograph of the Government servant should be pasted on the right side of page 1 of the service book.

23    Proper entries regarding medical examination of the Government servant at the time of appointment and attestation forms verifying antecedents and character etc. should be made at the appropriate place of the service book.

Thanks